hardwood snob picks up some white pine

[JA600L]

Hey guys,
I'm sitting on about 8 cords of hardwood. So I figured I would give white pine and box elder a try. I found a tree guy who bucked up some white pine and helped me load it. Splitting is miserable (expected).

Is it a good move to try white pine with the hardwoods?
I figure it will help burn down the coals in the coldest parts of the winter between reloads. Burning in a Woodstock hybrid.

 

[Dix]

You betcha it's going to help. You'll be really surprised

Also excellent for those shots of heat needed over night when it;s the end of October thru November to help with the overnights!!

I love pine, it's very versatile. Don't expect an over night burn, but it's awesome for day time when you are home!

 

[JA600L]

Thanks Dix!
I expect it to go well. I plan on getting the stove up to temperature and then slowly closing it down completely. This should make the cat go nuts and generate a lot of heat. I'm looking to get the house up to temperature after overnight burns and getting home from work. If I could get a good 5 hours out of a couple splits until going to bed that would be fantastic.

How is it as far as ash cleanup?

 

[Grisu]

I have found that dry pine has many uses as firewood:

1. It makes excellent kindling or firestarter from coals.
2. It can help to burn down coals when needed.
3. It is also great when it gets really cold and the stove needs to be run on high most of the time. Since it burns quickly and hot with little ashes I can reload my stove about every 4 hours before the stove and the house have time to cool down. The sometimes long coaling stage of hardwoods can make that difficult.
4. It is great for a quick hot fire to take the chill out.
5. It makes good shoulder season wood.

However, the one caveat I've found is to always top cover pine as it really likes to soak up any water. And be careful when you load the stove full with it; you need to change your air adjustment habits compared with hardwoods or you may easily overfire the stove.

 

[Wood Duck]

I would stack the pine separately from the hardwood. Pine dries fast and like Grisu says, absorbs water. Cover it.

 

[JA600L]

How about the pitch? What is the most effective way of reducing this? The wood I got shows some pitch, but not near what I expected. The tree guy said all the branches are dead, but the trunk seemed alive. I managed to load, split, and stack getting zero pitch on me.

From what I've read, the pitch burns so hot and clean that it isn't a problem. Will this be the case on a low catalytic burn?

 

[billb3]

pitch is a fuel
it loses moisture content just like the wood around it
skins over and then gets harder as it seasons

you can burn pitch like a candle
there isn't enough of it to be a concern

I usually let pine sit for a couple months before handling it to split it or just throw my gloves out
you almost have to when they are so full of pitch the fingers don't bend any more

 

[brenndatomu]

should make the cat go nuts

That would be catnip...

 

[JA600L]

I didn't really see a lot of pitch. What I did see seemed like it was already hardening. It was not sticking to me or my gloves. I learned the trick to splitting this stuff. You have to split perpendicular to the grain. Trying to split it parallel with the grain seemed impossible.

 

[Dix]

Thanks Dix!
I expect it to go well. I plan on getting the stove up to temperature and then slowly closing it down completely. This should make the cat go nuts and generate a lot of heat. I'm looking to get the house up to temperature after overnight burns and getting home from work. If I could get a good 5 hours out of a couple splits until going to bed that would be fantastic.

How is it as far as ash cleanup?

What ash???

 

[heatwise]

No pine this year. If I get any I split it small and set it aside top covered . I would add it to hardwood and use it to bring up the temp of the stove. Great fuel when dry.

 

[Poindexter]

I find spruce real versatile. In thE coldest part of the year I'll burn a box full of spruce on the coals left from when I went to work in the am, then when the spruce is about down toas a box full of hardwood on the spruce coals. In the am a few splits of spruce on the coals with hardwood above gets going quick so I can get out the door.

I do find my local white and black spruced season just fine in one summer on the shady side of my seasoning rack that is oriented east west.

In my shed birch and spruce are mostly separate, but I don't spend a lot or time on it.

I bring wood from the shed into the garage a face cord at a time, mostly birch on one end, mostly spruce at the other end of the garage rack.

I do sequester two groups of softwood
Last year's Christmas tree I like to burn while the family us gathered to put up the new tree. Second, softwood split's with golf ball and bigger globs of sap do best (at my house ) going into a hot stove so I can engage the cat right away.

 

[Poindexter]

I find spruce real versatile. In thE coldest part of the year I'll burn a box full of spruce on the coals left from when I went to work in the am, then when the spruce is about down toas a box full of hardwood on the spruce coals. In the am a few splits of spruce on the coals with hardwood above gets going quick so I can get out the door.

I do find my local white and black spruced season just fine in one summer on the shady side of my seasoning rack that is oriented east west.

In my shed birch and spruce are mostly separate, but I don't spend a lot or time on it.

I bring wood from the shed into the garage a face cord at a time, mostly birch on one end, mostly spruce at the other end of the garage rack.

I do sequester two groups of softwood
Last year's Christmas tree I like to burn while the family us gathered to put up the new tree. Second, softwood split's with golf ball and bigger globs of sap do best (at my house ) going into a hot stove so I can engage the cat right away.

 

[owingsia]

I am a burn anything kind of guy... ok as long as it seasoned wood.

I actually love to use wood to grill with and pine gives the food a nice flavor.... ok ok... as for burning for heat.. My wife actually likes the pine especially in November. It gets cold in the evenings and we load up the stove with pine or other soft woods or stuff like poplar etc... get a nice warm stove going right before bed. Some times I toss in a few more pine logs and let it go... come morning I do the same to take off the chill. We do not need the stove during the day.

This has always been nice until we get into dec-feb and run the stove 24/7... even then I have used pine and other soft woods right before bed. Load up the stove, get out a good book and let it rip.. get the stove hot for the night and then load with a big packed load of hard woods. Get those going and then set it for an over night burn. What is nice is that with the pine my wife is happy because the house is heated to high 70s maybe even low 80s when she goes to bed. The hard wood keeps the house temp in the 70s the entire night.

I love when guests come over and walk in and say "Wow! What is is costing you to keep the house this warm?" When I show them the wood stove they are all excited... anyway pine rocks.

 

[begreen]

I find spruce real versatile. In thE coldest part of the year I'll burn a box full of spruce on the coals left from when I went to work in the am, then when the spruce is about down toas a box full of hardwood on the spruce coals. In the am a few splits of spruce on the coals with hardwood above gets going quick so I can get out the door.

What? You need to feed that BK more than weekly?!